What languages do the royals speak?

[Lady Marmalade]

All three children of Rainier and Grace speak perfect English. Prince Albert even sounds like an American when he speaks.

Years ago Barbara Walters interviewed Princess Caroline when she had lost her hair due to stress and her English was perfect and she sounded American.

[Lyle]

Hey, I have heard before that Inaki is of Basque origin...does anyone know if he can speak the Basque language? And do Cristina and Inaki speak Catalan, too, since they live in Barcelona?

[...JuAnItA...]

Originally Posted by Lyle

Hey, I have heard before that Inaki is of Basque origin...does anyone know if he can speak the Basque language? And do Cristina and Inaki speak Catalan, too, since they live in Barcelona?

Iñaki and Cristina speak Catalan!

[crisiñaki]

And Iñaki speaks Euskera as well (Euskera is the language of the Basque Country)

[Kelly]

What is the difference? the Dialect?

[crisiñaki]

Originally Posted by Kelly

What is the difference? the Dialect?

Catalan is the language of Catalonia, an autonomic province of Spain that is located at the south over the Mediterranean Sea; while the Basque Country is located up north and it's part french and part spanish (ETA wants a separate Basque nation apart from both Spain and France); the languages are similar but not equal (think of german and dutch), the catalan is more similar to spanish than the Euskera.

Hope this helps :)

[*SofiaM*]

Originally Posted by Kelly

What is the difference? the Dialect?

I found this from a site and I'm hoping it's correct because I can't speak 'Basque' but here goes..:p

If you know how words look in Castilian Spanish then you can see the difference between it and Euskara straight away-
Euskara: kaixo (hello), eskerrik asko (thank you), bai (yes), ez (no), etxe (house), esnea (milk), bat (one), jatetxea (restaurant)

[lilytornado]

I have a question. As a royal you have to be educated and this includes knowing some languages (I know that how many are appropriate will probably depend on the country, for example I got the impression that the british royals tend to speak less languages than their royal fellows), so what is about the royal-by-marriage ones? I know that Letizia improves her English, but when she has done this, is she supposed to study more, like french? The same with the others, though it seems logic, that Maxima and Mary would focus on their Dutch/Danish as it is not their mother tongue first. But when they have done this, will they learn more? I know no one can see in the future, but is it expected from them?
Second, when do the royal children start to learn other languages ?
As they should get a good education, i would suppose, they would studying like english and french etc earlier than teenage age.
Does anyone has background information? Thanks!

[GlitteringTiaras]

Originally Posted by Princess Maxima

Mary speaks english, french and danish

I believe this might be incorrect.

Before her marriage to Frederik, Mary said in her documentary that she never learned or spoke, besides her mother tongue English, another language other than Danish.

So to say that she speaks French is incorrect.

[Mari_*]

I read on "Herederos de la realeza" (a royalty special edition of "Vanidades"*) that Prince Felipe speaks Spanish, English, French, and a basic Greek.
But besides those I think he also speaks Catalan and Portuguese..


*Vanidades is a magazine..

[Prince of Chota]

Originally Posted by gaggleofcrazypeople

English started out as the language of the royals.

Europe is actually divided into two camps--loosely along a N/S axis, also Protestant/Catholic, respectively. The language of the Protestant North is English, and the language of the Catholic South is French, in the international royal community. In fact, well into the 16th century, French was still the court language in England.

[magnik]

I've watched on Discovery about Versailles that Louis XVI was a polyglot - he know 6 or 7 languages. I don't remeber know which languages but he good known English.

[avrilo]

Does anyone know what languages do Carl P. and Madeline speak¿ they said about Victoria in the first page.

[ZandraRae]

I don't know if it has been mentioned before, but does anyone know what Harry speaks besides English? I thought I read he spoke some african language...

[kelly9480]

Harry took Latin at Eton, no telling how well he speaks it. He almost certainly took French, too. No telling about that, either. William was/is studying Swahili on his own, so no telling how far he got with that.

Diana didn't speak Welsh. Her speeches in Welsh were written for her and she simply went along with the pronunciations. Even I can pronounce Welsh even though I can't understand more than a few words of it. Charles learned Welsh while at Aberstwyth, but it's unlikely he's fluent in it. The rumor of William learning Welsh was dismissed by Buckingham Palace as a lie put forward by Charles' former press guy Mark Bolland.

Prince Philip has been described as speaking "kitchen Greek" by his cousin Alexandra of Greece (Alexander of Serbia's mother). He's not fluent in the language at all. In fact, his grandchildren might have a better grasp on it, since William allegedly took Greek at Eton.

[bct88]

I believe that Prince Charles is definetly fluent in Welsh. I'm pretty sure that's a well know fact.

[Henri M.]

Originally Posted by Solange

I've heard or better yet read that some people believe that Maxima doesn't speak very well dutch. That she speaks it with a spanish accent. Well spanish accents diver from wich country you are. Maxima from Argentina and their they speak spanish in a different accent than in Spain. Also they is a difference between duth and flemish.

There is no any difference between 'Flemish' and Dutch except for the accent. The rules are set in a so-called 'Green Book' which are exactly the same for both Belgium and the Netherlands. I can understand Flemish people very well, no problem whatsoever. Of course only if they speak common Dutch language and not the Antwerp or Brussels dialect.

Princess Máxima's Dutch is beyond belief when you take into account that she has never lived in a Dutch-speaking country before and succesfully mastered it in no time.

The Dutch language of Queen Paola, Queen Fabiola (more than 45 years in Belgium) and Princess Mathilde (born and raised in Belgium) is shockingly poor, with the knowledge that the Dutch-speaking Belgians are 2/3 of the population.

[Marengo]

I recently heard Queen Fabiola speaking on television and her Flemish was excellent and fluent, not to be distinguished from a born Flamand.
Paola has a peculiar way of speaking, but she has that in both french and dutch. She knows however the correct words and order of these words in sentences. Mathilde´s dutch is fluent to, albeit with a french accent.

[Henri M.]

Originally Posted by Marengo

I recently heard Queen Fabiola speaking on television and her Flemish was excellent and fluent, not to be distinguished from a born Flamand.
Paola has a peculiar way of speaking, but she has that in both french and dutch. She knows however the correct words and order of these words in sentences. Mathilde´s dutch is fluent to, albeit with a french accent.

My idea of fluent is: being able to speak or write smoothly, easily, or readily.

And I'm sorry to disagree with you on this point: no any Belgian royal except probably Princess Astrid does master the Dutch language 'fluent'. I'm not talking about an accentless pronouncation, but really... even the King's Christmas Adress is a pain for my ears.



Zap with your remote to RTBF (the french-speaking channel) and hear the same King speaking French... a scandalous world of difference.